(Healingtalks) Back in 2010 and right after the publication of the Harvard University EPIC Study, headlines abounded that better nutrition made little or no difference in the incidences of cancer. Putting industry-manipulated headlines aside, the actual study showed a 5-11% reduction in the risk of cancer – and that was with eating veggies like iceberg lettuce.

What if we matched the increased quantity of fruits and vegetables in that study and also upped the quality? For in the standard American diet, people eat more “bananas than blueberries; cucumbers instead of kale,” writes Dr. Michael Gregory of Cornell University. His blog posts consider berries to be the healthiest fruits (see Best Berries) and greens The Healthiest Vegetables.

Variety of fruits and vegetables

He also advocates eating a diverse variety of fruits and vegetables because there are tens of thousands of phyto-nutrients found therein and distributed in foods unequally. To get more variety we can eat different parts of the plant kingdom at one meal. Plants may represent roots (carrots), tubers (potatoes) stems (celery), leaves (lettuce), pods (peas), and flower buds (brocolli).

Eating whole foods

We also know that whole foods are better than processed foods with many nutrients working together vs isolated nutrients, eg. eating a carrot rather than just betacarotine. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Food combinations

The same principle can be applied to food combinations. The spice turmeric (Oxalates in Cinnamon) is poorly absorbed but that absorption can be raised 200x by adding black pepper to the curry mix. or 2000%!

In Dr. Gregory details some recent studies that looked at disease risk and the variety of fruit and vegetable we eat. Researchers found that eating 6 servings of veggies a day made little difference compared to eating 2 in terms of body inflammations. However eating a varied diet did make a difference.

Fauja eats a vegetarian diet whose main foundation is a daily serving of lentil curry. We have written several blog posts on this remarkable man. Research confirms that eating lentils and legumes, especially sprouted ones, with garlic, cumin, ginger and cardamon all offer anti-inflammatory effects.

Why anti-inflammatory diets counter diverse forms of disease

Several studies have confirmed that anti-inflammatory diets result in a much lower risk of cancer, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and you name it. But why? When something of this kind has such a universal effect, it is a sign of great significance in the philosophy of medicine. “Philosophy” is the eye-one-the-whole, and if we have the wrong philosophical principles to guide us, we are essentially lost.

Life and consciousness centered vision of nature and our bodies

This relates back to the most universal of all principles for us here at healingtalks, namely our life-and-consciousness centered vision of nature. Therein fire represents (and thus also inflammation) is one of the two primary sources of the departure of consciousness from our bodies implicated in every disease. Why, in turn, is this so important to know? Because we define consciousness as the “universal relationship of connection in ourselves and in nature.” Its presence thus keeps us connected to the world, to each other, and within -free from dis-ease, free from us falling apart – no matter what the name of the disease is! Oxygen is the bridge between the consciousness and the chemical model of nature – thus anti-oxidant diets are also highly significant.

The chemical or mechanical model of our bodies – the dead machine model – can’t really explain this phenomenon because it is a matter arising out of life’s universal essence.

Don’t be fooled by non-plant-based diets labelled “anti-inflammatory”

Several prominent holistic physicians have embraced an anti-inflammatory diet which consists of dangerously high quantities of proteins and fats (using flesh foods and processed oils). Don’t be fooled!